In this segment, Mark DeYmaz continues his exegesis of John 17, pointing out the two (Greek) hima clauses in the passage and their significance in terms of Christ's prayer that the church be one so the world would know God's love and believe.

In this segment, Mark DeYmaz explains why a healthy multi-ethnic church must not be focused on racial reconciliation, but on reconciling men and women to God through faith in Jesus Christ; and on reconciling a local congregation of evangelical faith to the principles and practices of first century churches such as existed at Antioch and Ephesus.

May 27, 2009

Taken from my recent talk at the InnovateChurch Conference in Lynchburg, VA, thirteen short video segements have now been prepared to assist others in understanding and articulating the Biblical mandate of the multi-ethnic church. These clips - ranging from 1 to 5 minutes in length - serve to introduce the concept of the multi-ethnic church and provide theological instruction concerning its New Testament moorings.

Feel free to download any or all of these clips for use with your staff or in small group discussion. In addition, you can help distribute them through your own networks by letting others know of their existence and availability. Of course, more comprehensive consideration of the multi-ethnic church can be found in my book, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church (Josey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2007).

I'll include the first download here, and upload the rest in subsequent posts on my blog.

May 20, 2009

Literally
hundreds of prophecies are recorded in the Old Testament concerning the coming
of an “anointed one,” or Messiah. Beginning with Genesis 3:15 and subsequent to
the fall of man, they speak of a Messiah, a Savior, who would one day be sent from
God to destroy the serpent, abolish evil, and redeem mankind. In so doing, the
Savior will restore man to a place of prominence in the divine order and, more
than that, to a personal relationship with his Creator. In addition, the
prophecies point to a coming Savior who would not only deliver the Jewish
people from destruction but grant to people from every nation, tribe, and
tongue the gift of eternal life as well.

The
question, however, has always been, Who is the Savior and how will we know? According
to Christ, the answer to these questions will be plainly manifest in and
through the unity of believers: “If they [we] will be one,” he prayed, then “the
world [will] know that You sent Me.” Yes, if we unite as one in mind, love,
spirit, and purpose, the world will experientially understand that he is truly
the Savior of the world. For only the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, can redeem
mankind—men and women from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue—and unite
them as one before the Father, thereby establishing peace on earth, goodwill
toward men. In this sense, his use of the word sent, a translation of the Greek word apostollos is intentional. As we have already seen (John 17:4)
and here again (John 17:23), Jesus is referring to himself as the personal,
authoritative representative of God in language these men clearly would have understood.

In
addition and through the oneness of future followers, Christ foresees that “the
world will know that You love them.” Although today we take this for granted,
we should remember that at the time of this prayer, the fact of God’s love for
all the world was, in general, a radical concept to the Jewish mind. In
that day, most Jews believed that YHWH was their God, that he loved their
nation exclusively. From their perspective, then, “the Egyptians have
their gods, the Hittites have their gods, the Phoenicians have their gods,
and we, the Jews, have our God.” In contrast, it was not God’s love but
God’s wrath that they believed would one day befall the rest of mankind. So
when Christ prays for the world to “know” God’s love, he is speaking directly
to the fact that salvation is not just for the Jews. And he says that all
mankind will experience his love when men and women of diverse backgrounds
are willing to walk together as one in Christ. In so doing, believers manifest
the reality that, “He Himself is our peace, who made both groups (Jews and
Gentiles) into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall”
(Ephesians 2:14).

On
the night before he died then, Jesus Christ delivered to us the most effective
means for reaching the world with the Gospel. He did not ask us to write books,
bring evangelists to our cities, or put ﬁ sh emblems on our cars. Nor did
he instruct us to win the world through large churches built by and for a
speciﬁ c segment of society. For that matter, he did not pray that we
would be “seeker-sensitive,” “postmodern,” “emergent,” or “purpose-driven.”
Rather, he called us to be one; then, he said, the world would know God’s
love and believe.

Yes,
in the twenty-ﬁrst century it will be the unity of diverse believers walking
as one in and through the local church that will proclaim the fact of
God’s love for all people more profoundly than any one sermon, book, or
evangelistic crusade. And I believe the coming integration of the local church
will lead to the fulﬁllment of the Great Commission, to people of every
nation, tribe, people, and tongue coming to know him as we do.

May 08, 2009

In the ﬁnal section of this prayer, Christ reveals that this same oneness of mind, love, spirit, and purpose will be equally vital for all those coming after the disciples—those who will, likewise, embrace the message and the mission: “I do not ask or pray on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word” (John 17:20). The question is, Just who does he have in mind? You know, no matter how many times I consider the answer, I am always amazed. On the night before Jesus died, he prayed speciﬁcally for me, and he prayed speciﬁcally for you. Indeed, he prayed not only for his apostles, but for all those, like us, who have or will someday come to know him through their word. For from the oral and written testimonies of the ﬁrst apostles, the Gospel message has gone forth. On and on it has been extended for two thousand years down to the present day with the result that you and I now believe. Yes, from the Father to the Son, to the eleven men in the room with him that night, to and through the countless hands of untold saints throughout the centuries, the message and the mission of the Gospel has come down to you and me. Indeed, the race is now ours to run; the baton has been passed to us.

Such understanding, however, leads to a second and equally profound question: Just what did Jesus Christ pray for us on the night before he died? Remarkably, he prayed just one thing and one thing only: three times in three verses (17:21-23), he prayed that we would be one. Now as both scholars and students of the Word know, any time something is repeated in the text, it is done so for emphasis. Stressing the importance of his words, then, Christ prayed ﬁrst that we would “be one” (John 17:21), then a second time that we would “be one” (John 17:22), and ﬁnally, that we would be “perfected in unity” (John 17:23). Let’s break this down for a moment.

First, Christ prays that “they may all be one.” As mentioned earlier, he is speaking of all those who would come after the disciples who would believe in him through their word. Quite simply, this refers to any and all who would later embrace him by faith and receive eternal life, regardless of who they were, from where they had come, or in what century they lived. All those who believe, then, have been called to be one and, as we are fond of saying at Mosaic, "All means all!" In addition, the word perfected is translated from the Greek word teteleiomenoi (the perfect-passive subjunctive of the word teleo), which, in this context, means “to become mature or, completely one.” According to theLinguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, “use of the perfect [tense] indicates a permanent state as the goal and ﬁnal result.”1 In other words, Christ intends for us (believers) to become mature in our faith, completely united as one and one with the Father (John 17:21). Yet there is something even more profound to be revealed in the exegesis of this passage. Indeed we must ask, Why does Christ pray so fervently for future followers to be completely united as one?

It is signiﬁcant to realize that Christ prayed we would be one for two very speciﬁc reasons, or “so that” two things will occur. The words so that in verses 21 and 23 are translated from the Greek word, hina. This word, a preposition, is used linguistically to introduce what Greek scholars refer to as an “hina clause.” When used, the word points to the intended result or purpose of something and, in a broader sense, is used to introduce a “purpose clause.” According to H. E. Dana and J. R. Mantey, writing in A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, “The function of a ‘purpose clause’ is to express the aim of the action denoted by the main verb. This aim may be of a deliberate design ... or merely of contemplated results.”2

In other words, an hina clause introduces an “if–then” propositional truth. In essence, the proposition can be stated as follows: If X occurs (though there’s no guarantee that X will occur), but if X does occur, then Y is the guaranteed result. With this in mind, we can paraphrase John 17:21–23 to read:

"I also want to pray for those who, in time, will come to believe in Me through the witness

of My disciples ... I pray that those who come after them will be completely united as one.

There is no guarantee that they will be one; but if they will, then two things will certainly result. First, men and women throughout the world will recognize that I am the promised Messiah. In addition, Father, men and women throughout the world will recognize that You love them. Consequently, they will respond to Your love

and receive eternal life through faith in Me."

On the night before he died then, Christ prayed specifically that future generations of believers would be one so that the world would know God’s love and believe. In this way and by this means, Christ stated that his mission would be accomplished through others and, ultimately, his Father gloriﬁed. What Jesus intends for us (the local church), then, is clear: we have been called to be one for the sake of the Gospel. It may not be easy, but it is biblical, and it is right. Therefore, we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (Ephesians 4:1).

Indeed, when men and women of diverse backgrounds walk together as one in Christ in and through the local church, they uniquely reﬂect the Father’s love on earth as it is in heaven. More than that, their oneness of mind, love, spirit, and purpose proclaim the Gospel in a most powerful and compelling way. For as his own union with the Father uniquely empowered Christ to proclaim God’s love for the world, our union with fellow believers uniquely empowers us to do the same. Yes, in pursuing the “perfection of unity,” we will see the world saved.